For a long time people have been subjected to the possibility of choking to death from an obstruction in the throat which inhibits breathing. Such an obstruction is usually a piece of food of a size which literally closes off the throat. At the present time the public has been alerted to this danger by instances of people dying in the rest rooms of restaurants or at home. It is, of course, easy to remove such an obstruction in the emergency room of a hospital where adequate equipment is available. However a customer of a restaurant or a person at home will ordinarily not have immediate access to such equipment and there is now no known device which is particularly adapted to be maintained available in the rest rooms of commercial establishments or the home and is so simple that it may be operated with ease and facility. In many cases the choking person has died in transit to a hospital.
Many people suffer from impairment of their respiration by being immersed under water for a long time, from the smoke of a burning building or other causes. Rescue workers in attempt to literally bring such a person back to life have resorted to artificial resuscitation by mouth to mouth respiration. The prior art embraces many examples of devices for either replacing mouth to mouth respiration or facilitating this operation. However it is believed that there is no simple device which is capable of use as a dechoker and which by an easy operation converts to use for artificial respiration.
When a person suffers from a heart failure, whatever its cause, circulation of the blood ceases and if this occurs for a prolonged period the person dies. It is now a well recognized fact that a heart may be started in its pumping action to circulate blood by alternately applying and relieving pressure to and from the heart. Thus many qualified rescue workers have resorted to massaging an exposed heart to start the blood circulating.
One facet of the present invention is founded on the belief that if sufficient air pressure is built up in the lungs it will be effective on the heart, which is closely adjacent to the lungs, to compress the heart and when the pressure is relieved or rendered negative the heart will expand to its normal condition. It is believed that there is now no known device that is adapted to be kept available in public places such as rest rooms, swimming pools, beaches and the like which will supply sufficient air under pressure to the lungs of a person undergoing a heart failure to start blood circulation. This belief is emphasized as to a manually operable device which, with exception of changes in dimension comprises the essential elements of a dechoker and resuscitator.